Mullen #man sentenced for #child #pornography

According to Nebraska’s acting U.S. Attorney Robert C. Stuart, the Nebraska State Patrol received cyber tips from Google in February 2016 about images of sexually explicit conduct involving minors attached to emails from addresses associated with Ansley.

The NSP eventually found 1,950 identified images of sexually explicit conduct involving minors on Ansley’s hard drive, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

In August 2016, a third-party told the NSP about electronic devices Ansley owned and also identified some email addresses referenced in the cyber tips, the attorney office said.

Based on the information, the NSP obtained a search warrant for Ansley’s home in Mullen. Officers found the external hard drive and the password for the device.

Images included prepubescent minors who had not attained 12 years of age. Further investigation showed the minors in the images were identified as living outside Nebraska and that the images were produced outside the state and shipped or transported to Nebraska.

These emails were sent from email accounts associated with Ansley in January 2016, the statement said.

Ansley also has a previous conviction — aggravated sexual abuse in the southern district of California on Oct. 2, 2003.

After his release from prison, he will serve another 12 years of supervised release and be required to register as a sex offender.

The sentence was handed down in Lincoln by U.S. District Judge John M. Gerrard.

The case was investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol. It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. The project was launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Led by United States attorneys’ offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims, the U.S. Attorney office said.